Unhappiness Does Not Shorten Life

Being happy helps you to live longer right? Wrong! The grumpy old man is real. He just makes life miserable for everybody else. People have to earn a living. Many jobs, particularly the monotonous production line ones, are boring, tedious and soul destroying. Unhappiness is the consequence.

Poor health can also contribute to discontent. Unfortunately, only a group of women in their sixties were surveyed. This is neither young or old. I wonder why they didn't examine elderly people? Ah well, scientists work in mysterious ways.

If you are chronically ill, you could behave in a way that does shorten your life, like giving up exercise and adopting a poor diet. Some even harm themselves which does damage the body, but does not really shorten life.

It seems 83 per cent of women in their sixties are "generally" happy. This is very high. It needs to be qualified, however, as 44 per cent said they were "usually" happy. There was another choice: "happy most of the time". Isn't this the same as " usually" happy? Thirty nine per cent chose "most of the time". Throw in unnecessary choices and you get odd results. There was a strong correlation between being ill and unhappiness.

Older women were happy if they enjoyed the following conditions: were physically active, had a partner, not deprived, mixed socially, participated in church and slept well. Some of these are out of one's control, like being married and having wealth. For the most part happiness is beyond our control.